WordPress is king. Currently 20% of websites out there are using WordPress.  Meaning it is easy to get help and by far the most popular way to build a website.  It’s easy to update your website once you learn it.

WordPress has great core features that can help get your website started quickly. It’s also very easy to quickly add more functionality with Plugins.  In your dashboard, on the left essential wordpress pluginsside, click on the Plugins link where you can see which plugins you have.  Up top you can click on New and Add plugins.  Just use the search and you can install them right from the web.  It’s that easy!

The following are the plugins that I put on every website I work with.  These WordPress plugins are essential on every website. I personally have installed these on websites I have built. You may need other plugins which will depend on what your website needs to do for your business.

#1 WordPress Plugin For Your Business Website

Akismet – No one likes spam.  Spam on comments could kill your website.  Make sure you have the right comment settings in WordPress setup. (In Settings go to Discussion. You probably want to approve the person first if they never commented on your site.)  Askismet is easy to setup but is a paid service.  This is the top spam filter that most people use. There are other spam plugins like : AntispamBee

#2 WordPress Plugin For Your Business Website

JetPack – Cloud based tools that enhance WordPress. Makes life easier!!  You will need to have a WordPress.com account.  Follow the procedures for this when activating this plugin.   Some tools in JetPack include:

  • a short code for YouTube and other media sites, which mean you just put in the URL of the video and it automatically embeds it! Cool! JetPack also has some really nice
  • Photo galleries.
  • There is a lot more and I will be covering this plugin in more detail soon. Stay tuned!

#3 WordPress Plugin For Your Business Website

WordFence Or iThemes security  –Either is essentially needed for security! This will let you sleep better at night knowing you took the proper measures to secure your business online. Both strengthen your WordPress based website giving it a firewall, blocking some brut force attacks on your website.  Also logs all the people who come to your website and try to login to your website.  You will also get notified when updates are available for your website, so you can patch them quickly. Try either one and see which works for you.  I have used WordFence more but I have iTheme Security on some websites.

#4 WordPress Plugin For Your Business Website

WP SEO – This is needed to properly get your website into search engines. Follow these simple rules from the plugin and your website will be ready for basic Search Engine Optimization.  When editing your post you will see how your website looks in Google.  Simply add the keyword that you want the search engine to use for this blog post and you will see how well your post is optimized for this keyword.

#5 WordPress Plugin For Your Business Website

Goolge XML sitemaps – WP SEO does have this feature, however I’ve had issues with that one.  I would recommend using this sitemaps program.  This will build a file on your website that helps the search engines list your pages.  This small file becomes a directory listing of every page on your website.  This makes it easier for the search engines to index your website and increases visibility in the search engines like Google.  It’s extremely important to have this XML sitemap file.

#6 WordPress Plugin For Your Business Website

underConstruction – Quickly turn your site down for testing and quick updates.  This is very useful when you’re first starting out or for a test site.  I always have a test site for my clients as well as myself.   All the test sites use this plugin so no one but logged in users can see the website.

This is also great for major updates or an event launch. Turns your website OFF!

#7 WordPress Plugin For Your Business Website

Contact Form 7 – A really simple way to have a contact form on your website.  This plugin will allow you to create and customize contact forms quickly.  All websites should use a contact form.  It’s been a proven way for people to reach you easily.

Your website needs to have an easy way for people to reach you quickly!  Web forms makes this happen. Contact Form 7 allows multiple forms and is the best free Forms plugin.

Those are the must have WordPress plugins for your business website.

Depending on the website, other plugins are just as important. I have left out backup plugins since there are many different ways to do this.  There are also many paid plugins that will help your website and online marketing needs.

I hope you enjoyed these plugins.  Take action now.  If you are not using any of the above plugins, click on the links and install them on your WordPress website today.  Comment below if you think there are other essential WordPress plugins. Let’s get the conversation started.  What WordPress Plugin above do you think is the most Important for your business?

P.S. I took out Premium plugins that need to be purchased from this list.  These are plugins that ALL business websites should have installed.

To your tech success,

Terry

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